Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Lifehttps://ircpl.columbia.edu
The IRCPL brings together scholars and students in religion, cultural anthropology, history, political science, economics, sociology and social psychology, and other allied fields to support multi-disciplinary analysis, reflection, and response to historical and contemporary issues of great significance.Mon, 19 Nov 2018 21:25:10 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.7https://ircpl.columbia.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/2017/07/IRCPLlogo-150x130.pngInstitute for Religion, Culture, and Public Lifehttps://ircpl.columbia.edu
3232Extended Deadline for the Conference “Untangling Popular Power” – Amman, Jordanhttps://ircpl.columbia.edu/2018/11/15/extended-deadline-for-the-conference-untangling-popular-power-amman-jordan/
Thu, 15 Nov 2018 16:50:24 +0000https://ircpl.columbia.edu/?p=28428

Call for Papers: “Untangling Popular Power: Rhetoric, Faith, and Social Order in the Middle East” – Amman, Jordan

Untangling Popular Power: Rhetoric, Faith, and Social Order in the Middle EastMarch 2nd – 3rd, 2019 at the Columbia Global Center in Amman, Jordan

Abstract Deadline:Friday, November 30, 2018

CONFERENCE SUMMARY

The Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life (IRCPL) at Columbia University in collaboration with the Columbia Global Centers | Amman and co-sponsored by our partners in Europe, are organizing a conference entitled – Untangling Popular Power: Rhetoric, Faith, and Social Order in the Middle East. The conference will consider various forms of popular power in the Middle East and North Africa by examining how populism is defined, the role of modern populist movements like anti-colonial struggles or popular anti-regime uprisings, how the use of religious identity has shaped these movements, and the relationship between populist ambitions and various media platforms, from print to broadcast to digital.

As “populism” itself becomes a significant force, both rhetorically and politically, across the world and in the region, the need for interdisciplinary scholarship across the MENA region is vital. This forum aims to explore the extent to which recently emerging populisms in the contemporary Middle East are illustrative of a new historical trend, and/or the extent to which they are a continuation of the diverse strategies for the mobilization of peoples that were deployed during international anti-colonial projects and civil rights movements. It will examine the intersection of populist and religious discourses and the relationship of secular and religious activists to political and social power, as well as the implications of the different strains of emerging populism on globalization, liberal institutions, human rights, and the media.

Although “populism” is a contested term, here we use it to characterize political trends in which leaders mobilize social groups for political action through rhetoric(s) that weave together emotionally charged themes into a message of economic uplift, nationalism, the wresting of power from entrenched elites, and the protection of an authentic way of life.

The two-day conference will be held at the Columbia Global Center in Amman and aims to provide a forum for scholars, local experts, advanced doctoral students, activists and practitioners to investigate these themes and track how populism that uses religious discourse is being variously deployed across the MENA region. Following the conference, select participants will be invited to contribute a revised and extended version of their papers to an edited book volume and other online writing fora.

The conference invites contributions from academics, NGO organizations, religious leaders, and civil society members who work in and on the MENA region. Contributors are invited to submit abstracts for the following thematic panels with a suggested range of topics for each panel.

Language and Meaning: Conceptualizing Popular Politics in the Middle East

Meanings and connotations of the term “populism” in the various contexts and languages of the Middle East and North Africa

Ways in which populist movements envision community and authenticity and target particular social groups (e.g. religious communities, ethnic groups, and economic classes)

Discourses of nationalism, civil rights, equality, religion, secularism, and methods used to promote cleavages of identity in the pursuit of populist objectives

The Past in the Present: Historical Perspectives on Populism

Contemporary populist movements in the region as a new phenomenon

Populist movements of the past

Differences between MENA and European/American populist ideologies

Mobilizing the Faithful: The Role of Religion and Religious Identity in Popular Politics

Role of religious leaders and religious communities

Use of religion and religious identity by populist leaders and movements to pursue national, economic, and social objectives

Tension between populist figures and media and the question of “illegitimate” or “fake” media.

Bread, Dignity, and Social Justice: The Economics of Populism

Divergent framings of welfare and who is mobilized around such claims

Role of global and local financial crises in rise of populist movements

Negotiation of Islamist economic ideas and global political economy

Economic precariousness and inaccessibility of resources correlated with changing views of what constitutes legitimate use of authority in MENA

GUIDE FOR AUTHORS

Abstracts should be 250 words maximum in length. They should be titled and have all requisite bibliographic citations. Along with the abstract, please include a detailed, recent Curriculum Vitae/resume (no longer than 3 pages).

Abstracts will be evaluated according to the following categories: originality of theme, clear data and methodology, clarity and relevance of the proposal to the conference theme. To submit your abstract, please send them to ircpl.populism@gmail.com with the subject line of the email titled “Populism Middle East Abstract” by Friday, November 30, 2018.

IMPORTANT DATES

EXTENDED Deadline for abstract: Friday, November 30, 2018Deadline for final paper submission: Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Co-sponsored by:University of Oslo – IKOSUniversity of Groningen – Centre for Religion, Conflict, and GlobalizationSciences Po, Centre for International Studies (CERI)Alliance Program – Columbia University

]]>Announcing the Rethinking Public Religion in Africa and South Asia Projecthttps://ircpl.columbia.edu/2018/09/19/announcing-the-rethinking-public-religion-in-south-asia-and-africa-project/
Wed, 19 Sep 2018 18:18:26 +0000https://ircpl.columbia.edu/?p=26215The Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life is happy to announce a new thee year project “Rethinking Public Religion in Africa and South Asia,” which will further scholarly and public understanding of the changing dynamics of interactions among religious communities in the modern world, considering the ways in which religion becomes public through diverse forms of encounter.

By attending to the broad array of phenomena that comprise lived religion and its place in public life, our goal is to rethink the concept of “public religion.” The project aims to shift public and academic discourse away from a tendency to foreground discrete religious traditions, sectarian boundaries, and identity politics, which all too often reduces the variety of ways in which religion’s place can be seen within social, political, and cultural life and reinforces the boundaries between communities.

The project establishes a partnership between IRCPL, the South Asia Institute and the Institute for African Studies at Columbia, for research, programming, public events and innovative new courses. This project is made possible by the generous support of the Henry Luce Foundation.

]]>IRCPL Welcomes Post-Doctoral Research Fellows: Mohamed Amer Meziane and Rajbir Singh Judgehttps://ircpl.columbia.edu/2018/09/19/ircpl-welcomes-post-doctoral-research-fellows-mohamed-amer-meziane-and-rajbir-singh-judge/
Wed, 19 Sep 2018 18:18:14 +0000https://ircpl.columbia.edu/?p=26218IRCPL is pleased to introduce our two, new postdoctoral Research Fellows, as part of our Rethinking Public Religion in Africa and South Asia Project.

Mohamed Amer Meziane is a postdoctoral Research Fellow and Lecturer at Columbia University in the City of New York. His research projects and teaching activities involve IRCPL, the Department of Religion, and the Institute of African Studies. He his also a research associate at the Sorbonne Institute for Law and Philosophy (ISJPS) and a member of the governing board of the CNRS based Research Network ICC (Islam et chercheurs dans la Cité) in which he holds a seminar series on secularism and public religion. His new research project analyzes the ways in which these imperial transformations are challenged within African spaces. The project questions the boundaries of Africa and the Middle East through the religious, racializing and ecological effects of political geographies. The aim of this project is to try and unfold the contemporary stakes of a systematic critique of these geographies for African theory, from Fanon until today.

Rajbir Singh Judge is a historian with affiliations in the Department of Religion and Institute of South Asia. His current project examines the ways in which Sikhism at the end of the 19th Century remained a generative site through which Sikhs and their diverse milieu in the Punjab contested not only British rule, but the very nature of sovereignty, refusing closures enacted by the colonial state. More broadly, he specializes in the cultural and intellectual history of South Asia, with a particular emphasis on the Punjab. His most recent publications can be found in the Journal of the History of Sexuality and History & Theory.

]]>Call for Papers: “Untangling Popular Power: Rhetoric, Faith, and Social Order in the Middle East” – Amman, Jordanhttps://ircpl.columbia.edu/2018/09/07/call-for-papers-untangling-popular-power-rhetoric-faith-and-social-order-in-the-middle-east-amman-jordan/
Fri, 07 Sep 2018 18:16:19 +0000https://asit-prod-web1.cc.columbia.edu/ircpl/?p=25856Untangling Popular Power: Rhetoric, Faith, and Social Order in the Middle EastMarch 2nd – 3rd, 2019 at the Columbia Global Center in Amman, Jordan

Abstract Deadline:Monday, October 22, 2018

CONFERENCE SUMMARY

The Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life (IRCPL) at Columbia University in collaboration with the Columbia Global Centers | Amman and co-sponsored by our partners in Europe, are organizing a conference entitled – Untangling Popular Power: Rhetoric, Faith, and Social Order in the Middle East. The conference will consider various forms of popular power in the Middle East and North Africa by examining how populism is defined, the role of modern populist movements like anti-colonial struggles or popular anti-regime uprisings, how the use of religious identity has shaped these movements, and the relationship between populist ambitions and various media platforms, from print to broadcast to digital.

As “populism” itself becomes a significant force, both rhetorically and politically, across the world and in the region, the need for interdisciplinary scholarship across the MENA region is vital. This forum aims to explore the extent to which recently emerging populisms in the contemporary Middle East are illustrative of a new historical trend, and/or the extent to which they are a continuation of the diverse strategies for the mobilization of peoples that were deployed during international anti-colonial projects and civil rights movements. It will examine the intersection of populist and religious discourses and the relationship of secular and religious activists to political and social power, as well as the implications of the different strains of emerging populism on globalization, liberal institutions, human rights, and the media.

Although “populism” is a contested term, here we use it to characterize political trends in which leaders mobilize social groups for political action through rhetoric(s) that weave together emotionally charged themes into a message of economic uplift, nationalism, the wresting of power from entrenched elites, and the protection of an authentic way of life.

The two-day conference will be held at the Columbia Global Center in Amman and aims to provide a forum for scholars, local experts, advanced doctoral students, activists and practitioners to investigate these themes and track how populism that uses religious discourse is being variously deployed across the MENA region. Following the conference, select participants will be invited to contribute a revised and extended version of their papers to an edited book volume and other online writing fora.

The conference invites contributions from academics, NGO organizations, religious leaders, and civil society members who work in and on the MENA region. Contributors are invited to submit abstracts for the following thematic panels with a suggested range of topics for each panel.

Language and Meaning: Conceptualizing Popular Politics in the Middle East

Meanings and connotations of the term “populism” in the various contexts and languages of the Middle East and North Africa

Ways in which populist movements envision community and authenticity and target particular social groups (e.g. religious communities, ethnic groups, and economic classes)

Discourses of nationalism, civil rights, equality, religion, secularism, and methods used to promote cleavages of identity in the pursuit of populist objectives

The Past in the Present: Historical Perspectives on Populism

Contemporary populist movements in the region as a new phenomenon

Populist movements of the past

Differences between MENA and European/American populist ideologies

Mobilizing the Faithful: The Role of Religion and Religious Identity in Popular Politics

Role of religious leaders and religious communities

Use of religion and religious identity by populist leaders and movements to pursue national, economic, and social objectives

Tension between populist figures and media and the question of “illegitimate” or “fake” media.

Bread, Dignity, and Social Justice: The Economics of Populism

Divergent framings of welfare and who is mobilized around such claims

Role of global and local financial crises in rise of populist movements

Negotiation of Islamist economic ideas and global political economy

Economic precariousness and inaccessibility of resources correlated with changing views of what constitutes legitimate use of authority in MENA

GUIDE FOR AUTHORS

Abstracts should be 250 words maximum in length. They should be titled and have all requisite bibliographic citations. Along with the abstract, please include a detailed, recent Curriculum Vitae/resume (no longer than 3 pages).

Abstracts will be evaluated according to the following categories: originality of theme, clear data and methodology, clarity and relevance of the proposal to the conference theme. To submit your abstract, please send them to ircpl.populism@gmail.com with the subject line of the email titled “Populism Middle East Abstract” by Monday, October 22, 2018.

IMPORTANT DATES

Deadline for abstract: Monday, October 22, 2018Deadline for final paper submission: Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Co-sponsored by:University of Oslo – IKOSUniversity of Groningen – Centre for Religion, Conflict, and GlobalizationSciences Po, Centre for International Studies (CERI)Alliance Program – Columbia University

Matthew Engelke is an anthropologist with research interests in Christianity, secular humanism, media, materiality, semiotics. He has conducted fieldwork in Zimbabwe and in Britain. He is currently working on a book about secularity and death, based on research among humanist funeral celebrants in London.

Before joining the Columbia faculty in 2018, Engelke taught in the Department of Anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science for 16 years. He received his BA from the University of Chicago in 1994 and his PhD from the University of Virginia in 2002.

Engelke is the editor of Prickly Paradigm Press, a section editor at Public Books, former editor of the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, and former deputy editor of the Journal of Religion in Africa. Engelke has served on the board of trustees of both the Royal Anthropological Institute and the London School of Economics, as well as vice-chair of the LSE’s Ethics Policy Committee.

The author or editor of several books, Engelke has also published articles in many journals, including American Ethnologist, Comparative Studies in Society and History, South Atlantic Quarterly, and Current Anthropology. Beyond his scholarly writing, Engelke has written for the
Guardian and Tate Modern.

— Books —
2017. Think like an Anthropologist. London: Pelican Books/Penguin. (Published in the US as How to Think like an Anthropologist, by Princeton University Press, 2018.)

The Consortium for Asian and African Studies (CAAS) seeks proposals for their Ninth Annual Symposium, taking place October 19-20, 2018 at INALCO in Paris. This years theme is “Minorities Between Globalization and Areal Approaches. [Self]Definitions, Constructions, Realities, Identities and Memories.”

The theme of this year’s conference is a critical questioning about the evolving concept and the diverse and complex realities of “Minorities” in Asia and Africa as well as among migrants from these areas all over the world.

The construction of the concept of “Minority” fits different definitions in terms of international law and it occasionally varied according to places and periods.

It broadly refers to a numerically inferior group with specific ethnic, linguistic, cultural, religious, political or sexual features—whether claimed by the group itself or imposed by the dominant society—therewith maintaining more or less problematic relationship, marginalization or even discrimination, sometimes embracing violent forms.

But if “Minority” frequently appears as a symbol of otherness, there are often contacts, links and some permeability between the different social and societal components and a Minority may also, at certain moments in History, be acculturated, integrated into the leading group or even assimilated—although a specific identity affirmation eventually re-emerges with the 2nd or the 3rd generations or even much later, through memorial claims that participate in the resurgence of a “subordinates’ culture” (A. Gramsci). Among other issues, the question of “indigenous peoples” is notably relevant.

On the other hand, inferiority in numbers is not always equated to a lower status and there are cases where it comes along a dominant position. In addition, one group may form a Minority in one region and make up a Majority in another one. Both in a national or in a transnational context, “Majority” and “Minority/ies » thus remain intertwined and mutually implicated—between processes of social inclusion and exclusion—despite apparent paradoxes. Then what are their most adequate “definitions”?

With the increasing advent of the idea of “supranationality” and the progress of globalization announcing the decline of the nation-state, but also in the context of a new rise of nationalisms—sometimes aggressive—and identity demands, how does the question of Minorities arise in Asia and in Africa? What situations does the recognition of identity pluralism conduce to? Can any “areal” specificity be distinguished on this point?

Another question: how does the “Minority Law” has evolved, within the framework of the willingness of the international organizations since 1947 to ensure and to protect it?

The issue of Minorities in the context of immigration and the creation of Diaspora groups will be also explored.

Graduate students and faculty of the eight CAAS member universities (Leiden, INALCO, SOAS, NUS, HUFS, Columbia, TUFS, SISU) are invited to submit proposals for papers dealing with these and related questions with regard to Asia, Africa, and their interrelated histories and presents.

All disciplines of Area Studies are welcome, including, History, Sociology, Anthropology, Political Science, Economy, Migrant Studies, Geography, Religious Studies, Literature, Linguistics, Theater and Film Studies as well as multi- and interdisciplinary approaches that combine them.

Papers will be selected based on content and approach. The papers will be grouped by themes, which will be conducted as workshops, with 15-minute presentations by speakers, and as much discussion as possible among participants and audience. The organizers can also accept panel proposals with three or four presentations. Each panel must contain at least one CAAS presenter, but it can include non-CAAS presenters as well.

Papers should be submitted to the organizers by September 15th, 2018 and will be made available to symposium participants.

English is the language of the Symposium, and as in the past eight CAAS Symposia we especially welcome applications from graduate students and post-docs as well as from faculty members.

The Institute of Buddhist Studies, with the support of the Henry Luce Foundation, invites proposals from scholars across the academic disciplines specializing in any religious traditions, and from theologians from all religious traditions, to participate in a three-year research initiative and series of meetings addressing the impacts of technologies on human relationships.

Thirteen scholars of religion and theologians will receive grants of $10,000 each to support individual research projects on technologies and interpersonal presence. Grantees will gather yearly to share and hone their research and its applications, explore opportunities for collaboration, and take advantage of significant Silicon Valley and media resources.

The deadline for the submission of application materials is May 7, 2018.

Overview

Public Theologies of Technology and Presence seeks to identify and cultivate new models of public theology (broadly construed) that powerfully address a central concern of contemporary life: The ways in which technologies reshape human relationships and alter how people are or are not “present” to each other.

Over the past several decades, technologies have radically reworked interpersonal presence. This is true across the full gambit of human interaction; wherever and however a person might come into contact with another person, new technologies are continually emerging that shape and host, that facilitate and block, these forms of contact. Whether new smart phones, social media apps, virtual reality headsets, social gaming platforms, romance apps, social commerce platforms, onward and onward—these technologies are remaking what human relationships, and specifically what interpersonal presence, looks like in contemporary life. These shifts in presence have profound implications both for individuals and for the webs of relationships—local communities, broader publics—in which they participate.

Scholars of religion and theologians are in a prime position to speak to these developments both descriptively and prescriptively. Popular reflections on technology and presence tend to dip and weave through religious and spiritual territories, often drawing upon concepts and vocabularies deeply rooted in religious traditions, histories, and practices, but without making such rootedness clear or explicitly cultivating religious traditions as resources. Major opportunities exist to speak directly from within or with knowledge of the religious frameworks that are quietly fundamental to the culture and to this conversation. In this fashion and others, scholars of religion and theologians possess powerful toolsets through which to examine, critique, and advise technologists and consumers regarding technology and presence. Yet they rarely participate actively in these public discussions.

The framing as “public theology” allows for boundary-crossing work at the intersections of religion scholarship, theology, journalism and popular media, and technology itself. Public theology in this case is about drawing on ideas and resources from the academic study of religion and/or theology in order to speak compellingly about the impacts of technologies on presence. This allows the academic study of religion and theology to lay claim to addressing this issue of great public concern; and it carves out new roles for university departments of religion and theological institutions.

Grants awarded to thirteen scholars of religion and theologians, from a broad swath of academic disciplines and religious traditions, will support individual research projects that explore technology and presence as public theology. (Three journalist grantees will also participate fully in the program.) Over the course of three years, the grantees will gather yearly at the Institute of Buddhist Studies for meetings and presentations about their ongoing work, with conference meetings and virtual meetings in addition.

In the second and third years, the gatherings will include engagements with leading Silicon Valley technologists and technology companies doing work relevant to grantee research. This will incorporate meetings, demonstrations of new technologies, and visits to technology company campuses. It will also include grantee presentations addressing the concrete implications of their research on presence for technological work and innovation, and commentary from the technologists grounded in the practicalities of their work. These engagements will be structured to allow grantees access to cutting-edge technologies relevant to their research and to the technical processes and company cultures through which these take shape; to develop lasting relationships and collaborations between the grantees and the technologists; and to chart specific, active roles for religion scholars, theologians, and their institutions in Silicon Valley work. This will be aided by an Advisory Board including scholars, theologians, and key technologist and media professionals.

Applications are welcome from scholars in all academic disciplines with specializations in all religious traditions, and from theologians from all religious traditions, including traditions such as Buddhism that are underrepresented in theological study. As such, the grantee cohort will be diversely oriented as to what “theology” and “public theology” mean and entail, including moving beyond traditional definitions. Grantees will come at their research from a wide variety of foci and methodological approaches. They will be unified in their attentions to examining technologies’ impacts on interpersonal presence.

Each scholar or theologian grantee will be expected to produce a scholarly book; or 3-4 journal articles; or 1-2 journal articles and 3 pieces of popular media.

Applications are welcome from scholars from across the academic disciplines who study any religious traditions, and from theologians from all religious traditions, specifically including traditions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and so forth that are underrepresented in theological study. Applicants must have completed the Ph.D. or terminal degree by the time of application.

Grantees will be expected to: Attend and actively participate in all program meetings, including four in-person meetings at the Institute of Buddhist Studies (costs covered) and an annual dinner meeting held in conjunction with the American Academy of Religion conference; produce a scholarly book, or 3-4 journal articles, or 1-2 journal articles and 3 pieces of popular media; and contribute occasionally to the program’s digital forum. Grantees will also be encouraged to develop and teach a course related to their research on technology and presence, at their home institutions, over the course of the program.

Program Timeline

May 7, 2018 Deadline for applications

July 15, 2018 Grantees announced

September 5, 2018 Start date for funded projects

May 24, 2021 End date for funded projects

Application Instructions

Applicants should submit the following materials by May 7, 2018:

1. Cover letter (1 page max)

2. Project description (5 pages max). Include: research objectives and methods; planned outputs; rationale for fit in this program, such as interest in engaging grantee colleagues across disciplines and traditions as well as technologists and broader publics.

3. Project summary (500 words max). Summarize the project in language accessible to an interested general audience. If the project is funded this will be used for publicity purposes.

4. Project timeline (1 page max)

5. Curriculum Vitae

6. Writing sample, ideally a published article or book chapter.

Length guidelines refer to 12-point font, single-spaced text. Proposals should be combined into a single PDF document and sent by email attachment to: stevenba@shin-ibs.edu. Confirmation of receipt will be provided.

Please address any questions about the program or the application process to Program Director Dr. Steven Barrie-Anthony: stevenba@shin-ibs.edu, (510) 500-9722.

* * *

The Institute of Buddhist Studies (www.shin-ibs.edu), established in 1949 and located in Berkeley, California, is one of the few Buddhist seminaries and graduate schools in North America. IBS offers graduate-level degree and certificate programs across the full breadth of the Buddhist tradition. Through its affiliation with the Graduate Theological Union and its relationship with UC Berkeley’s Group in Buddhist Studies, IBS faculty and students undertake cross-disciplinary and intra-religious approaches to the study of religion. The Public Theologies of Technology and Presence program extends IBS’s cornerstone interest in applying theological insight to innovative work in the contemporary world as well as its joint academic and theological foci and its dedication to collaboration across traditions.

The Graduate Theological Union (www.gtu.edu) is the largest and most diverse partnership of seminaries and graduate schools in the United States, pursuing interreligious collaboration in teaching, research, ministry, and service. The GTU is a pioneering educational environment: a consortium of eight independent theological seminaries and ten centers and affiliates. Since its founding in 1962, the GTU has produced thousands of alumni who teach at eminent universities and seminaries, minister to a broad range of congregations, and work in a variety of arenas—cultural, economic, religious, and political—to achieve the greatest good.

The Henry Luce Foundation (www.hluce.org), established in 1936 by Henry R. Luce, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Time Inc., seeks to bring important ideas to the center of American life, strengthen international understanding, and foster innovation and leadership in academic, policy, religious and art communities. The Luce Fund for Theological Education supports the development of new models of teaching and learning, research and publication, leadership development and educational program design. The Fund places central emphasis on the challenges of public engagement, within and across multiple religious traditions, and in a variety of different contexts.

]]>

Videos of Populism and Religion: The American Case are Now Availablehttps://ircpl.columbia.edu/2018/03/31/videos-of-populism-and-religion-the-american-case-are-now-available/
Sat, 31 Mar 2018 16:28:06 +0000https://asit-prod-web1.cc.columbia.edu/ircpl/?p=24924We are happy to present the video recordings from Populism and Religion: The American Case, which took place earlier this month. Below is a note from conference organizer, Jean Cohen.

Consider liking our videos and subscribing to make sure that you’re always up-to-date with what’s happening. It’s never been easier to be a part of IRCPL.

Pluralisms in Emergenc(i)es is the second conference in a series that explores pluralism as it emerges in response to contemporary global crises in the Middle East and North Africa. The conference situates Tunis as a historical epicenter of human, commodity, and capital mobility and, as such, pluralism. “Pluralism” is commonly understood as the recognition and affirmation of diversity within a governing body or set of institutional arrangements. Thinking of pluralism as a technology of power that helps to organize, exclude, and delimit people and their relationships, and is often articulated with special attention to religious difference, this conference addresses how pluralism becomes activated in emergency situations, utilized in different ways and towards different ends. The conference will interrogate the historical, social, and religious underpinnings of the so-called migrant and refugee crisis in order to position this moment as a state of pluralism in emergence, rather than a state of emergency.

The focus of this series itself emerges from a number of questions: What are the variations in how “pluralism” is understood, and how does it function in a time of crisis? Moreover, what are the material and immaterial modes through which pluralism takes shape? How do these terms change through the circulation of people (as migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers) and capital, whether under the auspices international development funds, religious aid, or new labor markets? Lastly, how have ideals of pluralism and multiculturalism and their modes of sociability, so often touted by many of these refugee-receiving countries, been awakened, shattered, or reinforced in response to the intense survival situations these refugees, migrants and residents face? This series aims to conceptualize and discern three distinct yet interrelated themes through which pluralism is articulated and/or affected: urban housing and architecture; collective memory and pluralism; and conceptualizations and comparisons of pluralism.

The conference in Tunis invites contributions from academics, NGO organizations, religious leaders, and civil society members who work in and on North Africa, the Western and Central Mediterranean Basin, including the greater Maghreb region (Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya), as well as southwest Europe (Spain, France, Italy). Addressing Tunis as an exemplar site of exchange, the conference includes the following panels:

Panel 1) Emerging Housing and Emergency Settlement

Built environments, and the relationships between migrant work camps, refugee housing, and improvised housing

Evolving relations of refugees and potential refugees and the networks formed during migration processes

Emergence of refugee/migrant hubs and their determining factors

GUIDE FOR AUTHORS

Abstracts should be 250 words maximum in length. They should be titled and have all requisite bibliographic citations. Along with the abstract, please include a detailed, recent Curriculum Vitae/resume (no longer than 3 pages).

Abstracts will be evaluated according to the following categories: originality of theme, clear data and methodology, clarity and relevance of the proposal to the conference theme.

To submit your abstract, please send them to ircpl.pluralisms@gmail.com with the subject line of the email titled “Religion and Pluralisms Tunis Abstract” byJuly25, 2018.

The Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life at Columbia University invites applications for postdoctoral research scholars for a period of three academic years beginning on September 1, 2018. The Institute plans to make two appointments (pending funding), with one position focused on Africa and the other on South Asia. The yearly renewal of the position(s) is contingent upon funding and performance.

The postdoctoral research scholar(s) will actively participate in the intellectual development and program activities related to the project “Rethinking Public Religion in Africa and South Asia.” The project envisions a partnership between IRCPL, the Institute for African Studies, and the South Asia Institute for research, programming, and coursework on the changing dynamics of interactions among religious communities in the modern world, considering the ways in which religion becomes public through diverse forms of encounter, with a focus on interegional differences and flows across South Asia and Africa.

The Institute is seeking outstanding applicants with demonstrated excellence in research, writing, and teaching in relation to Africa and/or South Asia. Topical expertise should include knowledge of one or more religious tradition, but might also include a focus on secularism, media, space, or the body.

The postdoctoral research scholar(s) will be expected to conduct his or her own research, teach classes (no more than one per semester), and actively participate in the planning of program activities for the Rethinking Public Religion in Africa and South Asia project. The courses may be cross-listed in the Department of Religion and the Institute for African Studies or the South Asia Institute, as relevant to expertise. In addition, at least one course in the three-year fellowship may involve a one-week international field trip with students.

This is a full time salaried position with benefits. Review of applications will begin on April 23, 2018 and will continue until the position is filled.

REQUIREMENTS
PhD in religious studies, anthropology, history, or a related discipline is required. The degree must have been awarded between 08-31-2016 and 08-31-2018.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
All applications must be submitted through Columbia University’s online Recruitment of Academic Personnel System (RAPS) and must include:

1. Cover Letter: Briefly describe your work in relation to the Institute and one or more of the listed thematic areas, identify a proposed departmental affiliation for teaching, and explain why Columbia University is a particularly good place to pursue your research (two page maximum).2. Curriculum Vitae3. Teaching Statement: Titles and short descriptions (one or two paragraphs each) of at least two courses that you could teach (submit as “Other Document 1”). Please note that we are not requesting a statement of teaching philosophy or full syllabi at this point.4. Writing Sample: One sample equivalent to a single journal article, book chapter, or dissertation chapter. The writing sample may be published or unpublished. It must be in English (maximum 50 pages).5. References: A list of names and contact details for two referees familiar with your work.

RAPS will accommodate uploads of maximum two (2) megabytes in size. After completing the “Provide References” screens, the applicant will come to the “Attach Documents” screen and be asked to upload into RAPS the required application materials listed above. The completion of this application process in RAPS is indicated by a confirmation number, which the applicant should retain.